Minnesota Tanks Season, Builds For Future.

After an agonizing first half of the season where the Minnesota Wild ,thanks to the direction of Jacques Lemaire, kept us in the playoff hunt, the slipping away was inevidible. Lack of scoring, and the ability to lose one goal games drove management wild. A decision from the top end was made to scrap the current regime, and to start rebuilding from the ground up. Asked whether GM Rod Edwards job was on the line, the answer was a overwhelming no, considering the job he has done, and the situation he was originally put in. Ownership: " You cannot expect to make changes to help the club when you have no clout to do so. Minnesota had very little to offer those who came knocking . Even in FA, Minnesota was not a desired place to play. We feel incredibly sad for a player like Tony Amonte who put his trust in us at FA time, but we feel we have done him major justice by sending him to a contender along with Daymond Langkow and Jiri Slegr to Detroit for some nice prospects for the future and a couple of pluggers to fill the void. " League management might be a little weery of such moves, but can be soothed that this GM will not skip town leaving the club in shambles. Minnesota will rock. It might take a few seasons but we will be there to see it through. More deals are to come soon. Daymond Langkow was asked his opinion of the deal," I have no regrets playing for a fine organization like Minnesota, and coach Jacques Lemaire. He taught me the importance of the defensive part of the game, and I am a stronger player for it. Moving to Detroit will make me work just that much harder to go for the cup. Something that was not to likely to happen in Minnesota for quite sometime anyhow." Tony Amonte: " Sure I am disappointed with the move, I had just moved my family to Minnesota when I got the news. Thankfully we had not found anything permanant. Management got a hold of me immediately informing me of a possible move almost a month ago which I really appreciated. So I was not caught off guard. Management was good to me." Jiri Slegr: " Am I suprised ? Of course not ! I have to thank Rod Edwards and the Minnesota organization for giving me a chance to get my game back when it looked like I might be destined for a career in the minors not to long ago. Other notables moving at this time seen highly sought after JP Dumont moved to Buffalo and Jaroslav Spacek move to Florida all for future prospects.